However in recent years, a more personalized approach to the treatment of chronic diseases has become of interest. Under this approach patients benefit from treatment rules that incorporate the patient heterogeneity of treatment effects and thereby treatment decisions are based on the individual characteristics of each patient.
Dynamic treatment regimes formalize this data-driven approach to treatment by optimizing the overall outcome of interest and providing treatment suggestions that are based on the patient's information available at each point of the decision making process [1]}, [2]}, [3]}, [4]}. In part because they utilize all available information, such optimized dynamic treatment regimes are often found to be more beneficial than a traditional set of fixed treatment plans[5]}. Further, because optimal dynamic treatment regimes focus on the overall or long-term outcome, they are more advantageous than applying multiple single-stage treatment rules that only optimize the stage-level outcomes.
